Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6)(106)

“If so, they might be buried as deep as that crap was. But I think what happened was the Air Force continued to do work on biochem weapons even after the order came down to stop. Or else they didn’t want to destroy what they had worked so long to make. So they, or some rogues working there, decided to bury the shit. Maybe they thought it could come in useful down the road. Or they didn’t want anyone to know what they were doing, or what they had come up with. But they had to put it somewhere that they thought was safe. Back then nobody ever imagined they’d be fracking up here.”

Jamison said, “And Daniels was the only one left who knew the truth? I can understand his telling Purdy. He was in the Air Force and had security clearances and all. But why would he tell Irene Cramer? Hell, he wouldn’t even tell us at first.”

Decker said, “Cramer’s mother was a spy. Maybe the daughter learned some interview techniques from her mother. She could have taken her time, asked innocuous questions at first. Maybe she noticed Daniels’s hat like I did. Maybe she researched him after he let something slip. She was a PT person. He liked her, she probably made him feel comfortable. She could have spent months working on him until she got most of the story from him. But she didn’t get all of it, which led her to come here and start asking questions. The fact that she was trying to meet oil field hands and not people from the military facility should have been a clue. She probably found out it was on the land around the installation, but she just didn’t know exactly where.”

“But still, you would have thought Daniels would have been more careful.”

“He’s an old guy, Alex. I’m not saying he’s not sharp, because he is. But he wasn’t going to be on his guard now to the extent he was all those years ago. And he probably never thought she would ever do anything with that information. He couldn’t have known about Cramer’s past, or who her mother was.”

“So, a perfect storm,” said Jamison.

“That’s right.”

“So then who killed Cramer? The people behind All-American?”

“They would be the ones with a motive. Same for Parker and Ames. They had learned things and had to be eliminated. And Purdy might be in that mix as well.”

“And maybe Cramer had some evidence, which she swallowed, and they cut her open to get it back. And they blackmailed Walt Southern to mess with the post reports.”

“It all fits together,” agreed Decker. “In fact, it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“So whoever is behind this has some serious money.”

“And the sort of firepower they’ve brought to this area isn’t cheap either, like Robie said.”

“But what would be the reason to release biochem weapons in a remote area like this? I mean, I get that it would be terrible to happen anywhere. But to do the most damage, you’d set the stuff off in a large city where millions of people and billions of dollars of property could be impacted.”

“Well, it might have been impossible to dig the bunker up without anyone knowing. And if they did succeed in digging it up, how were they going to safely open that crypt and collect the stuff inside? And then transport it out of here without anyone knowing?”

“But still.”

“And you forget that while there aren’t millions of people here, there are billions of dollars’ worth of property in North Dakota.”

Jamison said, “Of course, the oil and gas. It could have made this place uninhabitable and contaminate the oil and gas fields for centuries.”

“That’s right.”

When they got back to the hotel Jamison pulled the SUV to the curb and said, “What now?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to take a shower. Maybe none of that stuff got out of the pipe, but maybe some of it did. Who knows? I’m going to call Stan and tell him to do the same thing.”

Jamison’s eyes widened. “Right. I think I’m going to take a shower, too. And go through a couple bars of soap.”

They were about to climb out of the SUV when Jessica Reel appeared at the driver’s-side glass and said, “You need to come with me.”

“Why?”

“Decontamination.”

“Do you know what was down there?” said Jamison anxiously.

“Not definitively, but the speculation mandates that you two go in for decon and testing.”

“My brother-in-law—” began Decker.

“We’ve already picked him up. And the men from the pumper truck.” She pointed down the street. “We have a van over there. Get in the back and put on the suits that are in there.”

“Wait a minute—are you saying we’re contagious?”

“I’m saying we don’t know. We’ll take charge of your SUV. It needs to be tested, too. So leave the keys.” She moved back and pointed to the van.

They climbed into the back of the van and put on the hazmat suits that had been laid out for them. They even had their own closed-loop air pack systems.

“Okay, this is scary,” said Jamison, through her face mask. “Do you really think we’re contaminated?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” said Decker. “But we better not be.”

“Well, yeah, duh.”